Hidden Behind A Screen
by xKiga-chanx
Summary: A few months after Izanami messed with the citizens of Inaba, there was an incident starting to go on in Okayama. With the incident, a new adventure begins, a new destiny, new trials, a new enemy. Can our new heroes defeat the threat...or die trying...or get diarrhea? (Btw, I'm sorry to the people that were reading my other story but I decided to start off fresh.)
1. And Then

As the night turns into day, the sun's rays shine through the haze on a one of the electrical poles. At the same time a young man is making his way to the local bookstore, he's is the owner Kyousuke Ino. Upon looking above he sees the silhouette of a dead body, hanging from the pole. With a terrified expression he lets out a horrified yell alarming anyone nearby.

I woke up unwillingly, almost blinded by the suns rays. I look over at my alarm clock, irritated with myself for waking up so early. "Ugh...I still have a few minutes left...stupid body." As soon as I shut my eyes once more, the alarm promptly goes off. I let out a heavy sigh and roll out of my bed, landing on the hardwood floor with a loud thump. "Owowowowow...whyyyy?" I grumble as I roll around holding my aching head. I should probably explain, My name is Kigarra Ayame. Like most anime characters, I'm sixteen years old and a second year at Megami High School. After quickly getting ready for school I headed out of the door, waving goodbye to my parents. Since I wasn't really running late, I took my time walking to school. I met up with my neighbor. His name is Hao Reiji, but most people just call him Hao. He's a student in my class, he's smart, but he's a bit pessimistic. Still, he's pretty fun to be around.  
" Hey Kiga! (my nickname) did you study for the test today?" said Hao.  
"Ahahaha...no.." I said.  
"You really should have, the test is 30% of our grade."  
"Well y'know I have crazy luck, I'll probably ace it anyway..!"  
"Really Kiga? I'm not gonna pull you out of the gutter when you fail."  
"Yeah yeah, whatever you say~"  
A few minutes or so go by and we reach the school the entrance. Students rush into their classrooms while others hang around the halls. I end up overhearing some gossip coming from two girls.  
"OHMYGOSH, did you hear about the new transexual student?"  
"You mean Transfer Student?"  
"Oh yeah, that word...Well anyway, I heard that he used to live in the city but was forced to move by his parents. His name's Taiki Sakamoto."  
"I bet he's super hot!"  
"Yeah totes!"  
They both giggle and snort, indulging in their gossip. Hao and I then walked to class 2-B. The room was bustling with conversation, but slowly dimmed down as our teacher, Queen Moron stomped into the class. Her witch-toed high heels pointed straight at us, her scowl apparent on her face.  
"Ok, now listen up ya little shitstains. I'm gonna give out this test, and y'all gonna fail!"  
A heavy chorus of groans echoed throughout the classroom. Hao finished his test in record time, but Kiga was a close second.  
Then the results went up:

Kigarra Ayame: C

Hao Keiji: A-

Ryuji Fumihiko- B+

Akari Kei- B+

Daaro Hiroyuki- C+

Naho Himawari- B Yusa Ken- F+

"YES! THE HIGHEST IN THE CLASS! Finally my hard work pays off!" said Hao.  
"Meh." I respond, shrugging.  
"I heard someone got killed, I was hoping it was you...guess my prayers weren't answered." I hear a sarcastic voice from behind us. It was none other than Ryuji Fumihiko.  
"Oh look who it is..."  
"Really Yu-Yu? Someone actually did get killed. I was actually on my way to go check it out."  
"I've already seen it, it's pretty messed up, almost as bad as you looked before the exam"  
"Guh...why you..." I growl slightly through clenched teeth.  
"...Ok, So Kiga, wanna check it out on my phone ?"  
"Sure, can't hurt to look."  
Hao took out his phone from his pocket and I got closer to look at the small screen. My eyes widened in surprise. So Ryuji wasn't just making stuff up, someone actually did die! I stepped back a bit and let out a deep sigh. I had a feeling something strange was gonna happen this week, but not something like this! Soon the bell for the next class rang. As I left with Hao I turned around a bit to stick my tongue out at Ryuji, only to see he was already doing the same thing. I let out a quiet scoff then headed into my class. I quietly sat down at my seat and our History teacher, Mr. Reiki, walked into the class with one of his wacky ties of the day. "Alright guys guess what? I'm sure you've all heard by now, but we have a new student~!" He explained in a singsong-y tone.  
"So without further ado, you can enter the class now."  
With that, a boy with short light brown hair walks into a classroom. He speaks with a soft voice and smiles warmly toward the class.  
"Nice to meet you all, my names Taiki Sakamoto. I hope we can all get along just fine." I swear I could see a few sparkles come off his body when he cocked his head to the side slightly to give a cute smile. The females in the room let out a dreamy sigh and I laid my head on my desk. I was not going to fall for the innocent transfer student act!  
Little did I know that soon something much bigger was on the horizon, something that would twist my world and those of the people around me, upside down.


	2. Beginning

Soon the school day ended and Ryuji, Hao, and I headed towards the crime scene. We braced ourselves for the worst. "No matter what we see here, let's not panic." Said Hao.  
"Speak for yourself, I'm not scared of seeing a dead body. I have a pretty strong stomach." I responded.  
"Right, thats why your knees are shaking like a toddlers" said Ryuji.  
"T-they are not!"  
The three then brought themselves to the crime scene and looked up. It was a horrible thing to look at, all bloody and mangled. The body had already been removed so logically they pitied the damage done to the poor defenseless telephone pole. Hao then spotted their friends from school amongst the crowd and the three decided to meet up with them.  
"Hey there Akari!"  
"Hi Hao!" Said Akari "What's up Naho?" I said.  
"Not much Kiga, how are you guys?" Said Naho.  
The sound Naho's Australian accent was always so uplifting, amongst the crowd observing a crime scene.  
"Well, the victim was that transfer students brother."  
"I heard the Midnight Channel warned about it a few days ago"  
The group turned toward two girls within the crowd, gossiping amongst each other. The two then left the scene.  
"How do they know about that?" Hao questioned.  
"About what?" I said "The Midnight Channel." " What's the Midnight Channel Hao?" Asked Akari.  
"I-I... don't really know, its mostly a rumor." Said Hao "Who cares then, lets just go." Said Ryuji.  
The five of us then went to our usual hangout, the local bookstore. We entered the store as usual.  
"Hey Mr. Ino, we're here!" Hao called out. But he didn't answer so we assumed he was in the back, checking inventory and stuff like that. We all sat down at one of the tables.  
"Poor guy, he just moved here. Why would anyone wanna kill his brother?" said Hao.  
"Lets just hope someone finds out the reason soon..." Akari replied, quietly eating a mandarin she'd kept from lunch.  
"I saw their father on the news yesterday, he was a politician, I heard of kidnapping a politician's son, but killing them is going way too far." said Hao.  
"So..." I began. "Tell us more about this midnight channel you heard about Hao."  
"Alright, well... the Midnight Channel initially showed up in an internet forum a few months back, a suspect in the Inaba killings last year supposedly talked about a channel that showed who was going to die. It was written off as insane talk, but those two... how did they find out? I had to hack into the Inaba police servers to get info on the Midnight Channel." Said Hao.  
"Well since it's on the internet, I guess someone was also able to hack into the police servers and posted it somewhere else."I said as I sat with crossed arms.  
"Kiga that stuff is classified info, it wouldn't make it on the internet. I'm beginning to worry that this might not be the only murder we see this year." Said Hao "Well, lets find out if it's true shall we?" Ryuji piped in.  
" I agree." Said Naho, "I think we should test out this little theory. How do we watch it Hao?"  
"I... don't know. It has something to do with midnight, so let's try out our own ideas tonight." Said Hao.  
"Wait wait wait!" I yelled. "Ok, so theres a channel that supposedly tells who's gonna die soon and you guys wanna just try it out?! Are you guys crazy, what if we summon the devil like in some horror flick?!" " Well, that person from the crowd said they saw something last night, they're still alive. So I say we give it a shot or are you too scared Kiga?" said Hao, knowing he just won.  
"What?! N-no, I'm just worried about you guys y'know..." I reply, looking off to the side nervously.  
"Well, I'd rather not see another person dead." Said Mr. Ino as he walked out from behind the curtain dividing the book storefront the storage room.  
"Mr. Ino, what are you talking about?" Said Akari, who apparently wasn't paying attention until just now.  
" I was the one who found Taiki's brother, I'd rather not talk about it, but the press won't leave me alone." Said Mr. Ino.  
"Oh, I see...um sorry for bringing it up Mr. Ino." Hao apologized.  
"It's alright, you kids should she the report later tonight or something. For now, I think I'm gonna close early today...I need to rest and get this whole incident off my mind." He said as he ushered us out of the store. "Stay out of trouble now you guys." He then closed the door and locked it, flipping the Open sign to Closed. Hao checked the weather on his phone and smiled to himself.  
"What are you so happy about?" I asked.  
" Its gonna rain tonight, you know how much I love rain!" Said Hao.  
"Yeah, I do." I say smiling. "Well, I'm gonna head home before the rain comes. See you guys tomorrow."  
"Later Kiga!" Naho said.  
"Bye" said Akari.  
"Later Hao, bye Naho, see ya Akari" said Ryuji obviously ignoring Kiga.  
Everyone then started to head to their own houses.  
And then it happened.


	3. Odd Occurences

I soon reached home, since the bookstore wasn't too far from it. Greeting my little brother and father, I sat down with them and at dinner as usual talking about our day and such. My day then began talking about the recent incident.  
"You know Kiga, I want you to be more careful ok? That sudden incident has gotten me worried, I don't wanna end up seeing my own daughter like that.." He said.  
"Don't worry Dad, I promise I'll stay safe." I replied with a warm smile. After that I went up to my room for the night, getting ready for bed. I then sat down on my bed and waited.

11:56

I waited until midnight like Hao explained to me earlier. He had told me to stare into the TV at midnight and wait for something to happen. I tried my best to stay focused but the whole idea of this Midnight Channel made me nervous.  
"Hao better be right about this being harmless.." I had already imagined it, horrible things coming out of the TV like in some horror flick, or worse, being thrown INTO the TV. The thought of being thrown in scared me the most, thank god THAT never happened.

11:59

One minute away. I started hearing weird noises that started to really freak me out. It sounded like a person trying to tell me something. I tried to shake it off as just being my imagination, but It kept bothering me.  
All the world will fall into darkness...the river of the dead shall flow...take a look inside...go in...go in...  
The voice kept saying along with other things I couldn't quite figure out. The rest seemed to be in another language, Latin maybe? Or Greek? Something like that. I sighed softly to myself and grabbed my pillow, hugging it tightly. Everyone was going to be fine, I hoped.

12:00

It's finally time, unfortunately I'd decided to lay down and was struggling to keep myself awake. Not being able to resist my sleep. I heard a noise from the tv and I sat bolt upright, terrified. I saw a blurry image of a man in a sweater on tv. Then it went completely blank.

The Next Morning

" I saw something last night as well. Looks like my theory was right." Said Hao " I don't know what I saw! It may have been a bad dream or something!" I responded " But you will admit that you saw something? Right?"  
"Sure, I saw somethi-"  
"That's all I needed to hear." Said Hao, cutting me off.  
We then met up with Ryuji and the others and told us about their experience.  
"I saw the Midnight Channel last night, but it was all fuzzy and weird noises were coming out of my TV!" Said Akari.  
" I think you may have found **EVERYONE'S** Midnight Channel." Said Ryuji "What is that?" Said Akari, clearly too innocent to understand.  
"We'll talk about it when you're older."  
"But Ryu-"  
"When your older!"  
While Ryuji was subtly explaining the "Midnight Channel" he was talking about, Naho was telling Hao and I about what happened to her.  
"Well... all I saw was a fuzzy image, thats it Kiga. That was it." Said Naho "But I **SWEAR** I heard something last night!" I Said "Kiga, maybe that was just a dream."Said Hao.  
"But Hao, I **DID** hear something, it was in english first and then in greek I think."Said Kiga "Wait hold on, you heard that too?"Said Hao.  
"SO YOU DID HEAR SOMETHI-"  
"SHHHHH" said Hao.  
"Not in front of the others. As far as I can tell, we were the only ones to hear it. At first I thought it was a dream so I didn't want to worry you guys, but now that I know I wasn't the only one I'm starting to wonder what it could mean."  
The five then went through school as usual and decided to go to the bookstore after class.  
"We're here Mr. Ino!" Hao yelled.  
but the he never came out from the back.  
"Hey guys, I didn't know you hung out here."  
Standing in front of the group was no other than Yusa Ken, a first year that should've been in our class but he failed out.  
"Never thought I'd see the day you got a job Yusa." Said Hao " I didn't really, Kyosuke's my uncle and he's been missing so my parents forced me to come fill in." said Yusa with disdain.  
This change of events didn't mess up the groups normal habits. We all talked about the day and even talked with Yusa a bit. It was great to see everyone so happy.  
After a while, we all got tired and went home. I waited to see the Midnight Channel again, remaining quiet to see if I could hear voices or noises again. I wanted to know what was going to happen and what was going on.

The TV flickered on.

I saw Mr. Ino on the screen, and then I saw...another Mr. Ino? The first Mr. Ino was in pain then the camera panned and I saw Mr. Ino... Bleeding out. He fell to the ground and the second Mr. Ino began to laugh maniacally. His iris' were yellow and his smile seemed to be crooked, as if he were enjoying the sight and then the TV went blank.


	4. Flicker

Flicker

The next morning I woke up in a cold sweat. What I saw on the TV last night ended up giving me nightmares, the scene replayed in my head as I slept. I let out a soft sigh then got out of my bed. I headed to the bathroom and washed my face along with everything else before heading downstairs, dressed for school. When I sat down at the table to eat breakfast my father saw the bags under my eyes and gave me a worried look.  
"Are you alright honey, you have bags...did you stay up late again?"  
"No Dad, I just...had a nightmare is all..." I responded with a reassuring smile. He let out a sigh then smiled back before patting my head.  
"Well alright then, now go ahead and finish breakfast then head on to school."  
"Yes sir" I chuckled quietly then happily began eat my morning meal. After eating and saying goodbye to my brother and father, I headed out of the door. At the same time, Hao had just left his house so I ran over to him.  
"Hao, I saw it again last night" I said.  
"So did I, I hope what we saw isn't true." said Hao "Did anyone else see it?" I said.  
" Ryuji and Naho, Akari is still not doing it right." said Hao "Alright, at least most of us are on the same page" I said.  
"We definitely know one thing, this year won't be easy" said Hao.  
"Yeah, in more ways than one." I replied, nervously rubbing the back of my head. We all walked into school and went to our separate classes. I walked into my first class, Math, and sat down next to Akari. "Hey Akari. Ready for the test today?" I said nervously.  
"Yep! I'm so pumped!" Said Akari.  
"Glad to see one of us is." I replied, a small bead of sweat going down my forehead. The exam started and I immediately blanked out. I looked over at Akari's paper, not trying to cheat of course, and saw that she was already halfway DONE! She looked over at me and smiled.  
"Wanna borrow my test? I'll be discreet about it." Said Akari Normally I wouldn't cheat, but this is math, and math is freakin' HARD.  
"Thanks Akari." I said, and with that I began.  
Akari got up and and was about to hand in her test when she "tripped" on my desk, causing it to fall over.  
"OH KIGA! I'M SORRY! HERE LET ME HELP YOU PICK YOUR DESK UP." She crouched down and slipped her test next to mine on the floor, face-down.  
"Thanks Akari, I've got it." I said with a discreet wink.  
I quickly copied the answers down and I pulled the same thing when I handed in my test, I knocked her desk over to give her the test back before Queen Moron, the Bitch goddess, could realize we both cheated.  
"Well, glad that's over, you really saved me there Akari." I said as I stretched in my seat after the test was over, turning to her.  
"Anytime Kiga! I just wish you'd study more..."  
"I DO Akari, but math is HARD!" I replied.  
Then the bell rang and I went to English with Naho, We both sat down and wrote an essay about whatever the teacher had instructed. I saw that Naho was struggling to write down the first paragraph of her own paper.  
"Um...do you want me to give you some help?"  
"Yes, please help me Kiga!"  
I blinked a few times a bit surprised by her unhesitant answer then a soft smile formed on my face. "Alright then, well first..." I began to explain to her till she was able to understand how to work out a few issues and properly write down her ideas.  
Next there was science with Ryuji which was kinda fun considering Ryuji and I blew up the Chemistry Lab again because Ryuji didn't turn off the Bunsen burner when I brought in the Hydrogen balloon. Then last me and Hao went to History. We were learning about ancient Greece and Hao had to correct the teacher multiple times until eventually the teacher took the walk of shame back to the desk and Hao taught the class. Hao normally did this and I always admired his confidence to take up the book and teach.  
"And then the god of death, Hades tricked Persephone into eating the cursed fruit of the underworld..." said Hao "and then Demeter got depressed and the first winter happened" I piped up.  
"Then somehow Persephone got out of the underworld for six months every year and since then there have been seasons." Ryuji finished as he hit Hao in the back of the head with a rubber band.  
"And with that the Greek mythology lesson is done no thanks to you Mr. Katakawa." Said Hao, clearly annoyed he had to teach, again.  
"...rotten brat..." Mr. Katakawa muttered under his breath. "He'll get what's coming to him."  
Mr. Katakawa was always frustrated at Hao because he saw him as a know-it-all. Hao never seemed to care though.  
Then we all walked home as usual and Hao and I waved goodbye to our friends as we left.  
"Kiga, I just wanna say something important to you." Said Hao.  
"What Hao?" I replied.  
"Don't be afraid of what happens tonight." Said Hao.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" I said.  
Instead of responding, Hao ran to his house and shut the door. Leaving me all alone.  
I went in my house and went into my room and waited for the midnight channel.  
"Don't be afraid of what happens tonight"  
I heard Hao's words in my head.  
" he must be talking about the midnight channel."  
Suddenly I felt a wave of tiredness sweep over me and I fell asleep.

Welcome to the Velvet Room... 


	5. Velvet and Frills

Velvet and Frills

I then woke up on a seat in a limo. I sat up and panicked immediately. Where was I? What is this place?  
"Kiga don't panic, you're perfectly safe here. Your body is still asleep at home we're in a different plane."  
I turned to the voice and saw Hao, sitting on the seat next to me wearing a black tuxedo. I quickly looked at myself and noticed that I was wearing a black blazer and a skirt.  
"What the hell Hao? Why were you so weird earlier today? You had me in a panic!" I said.  
"I needed to keep it a secret, if you knew about it beforehand, Igor and Michiyo couldn't bring you here." said Hao.  
"Well then, again, where am I?!" I said, still in a panic.  
"You're in a place called the Velvet Room. Its a different world from ours, Igor and Michiyo explained everything to me earlier. These guys are here to help." Hao explained while gesturing to the two.  
I looked around and saw a woman with chestnut brown hair that was shoulder length. She reminded me of Rise Kujikawa, a idol from Inaba. However, she had straight hair and she seemed to be more of a businesswoman. "Hello, My name is Michiyo, and I am an assistant to Igor. Welcome to the Velvet room."  
And then I saw an old man with a freakishly long nose.  
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooo" Igor said.  
"Uh...Hello." I said with a shaky voice.  
" You shall meet your true self soon..." said Igor.  
" What does that me-" I was cut off as the scene around me began to fade into black. I then woke up in my bed with a cold sweat. I had my regular pajamas on. For a while I sat there wondering what I could've eaten to cause such a dream. I sighed softly to myself then went to the bathroom to wash my face.  
"Seriously what the hell kind of dream was that...?" I said as I looked into my mirror. I splashed my face with water one last time before going downstairs and getting breakfast. My little brother ran up to me and hugged me tightly. With a soft smile I hugged him back and gently kissed his forehead.  
"Ya sleep ok last night..?"  
"Mhm! I had a really cool dream! There were lasers...and um...a giant dinosaur and then cloud soldiers..." I listened to him explain his dream when my dad came into the kitchen.  
"Morning dad" We both said. He then gave us a warm smile before starting to cook breakfast. I couldn't help but think about what happened last night as I ate breakfast though, it kept replaying in my head as I tried to figure things it. Since today was the weekend I decided that I should go talk to Hao about it. After the breakfast I washed the dishes and got my clothes on, I was planning to ask him what last night was about and I wasn't going to take no for an answer. I walked up to the front door and took a deep breath before knocking on the front door. After waiting a minute, the door was opened by his mother.  
"Yes..? Oh! It's you Kigarra, did you come to see Hao?"  
"Uh, yeah. Is he home?"  
"Yep, he's upstairs, probably still sleeping come on in!"  
"Sorry for the intrusion..." With that I entered the house, immediately going upstairs. When I reached for the doorknob, I heard a voice from inside.  
"Hao, why can't we just do it?" Said a familiar voice from the other side of the door.  
"Because it's not right, I mean what if Kiga-" I heard Hao say.  
"Who cares about what she thinks? At this point she needs to know." Said the other voice.  
"But what if she thinks I'm a freak? I don't wanna lose her." Said Hao.  
I decided that I had heard enough so I mentally prepared myself before storming into the room.  
"HAO WHAT ARE Y-"  
I stopped midway as I saw Hao with Michiyo Midorikawa from the Velvet Room. Michiyo was wearing Hao's school jacket over her underwear and Hao was in his boxers. I slowly close the door then open it again after a minute. Almost breaking the door when I opened it again.  
"Kiga I can explain-"said Hao.  
"Hao...y-...you...and...why is she...wha..."I remained silent for a moment before glaring at him angrily and almost breaking the doorknob as I gripped it.  
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HAO, YOU CAN'T JUST HAVE...have.." I said as I began blushing bright red as I thought about it. I then leaped at him as I tried to punch him in the face. He blocked it and then I countered with a swift kick to the nuts. Successful hit.  
"He didn't do anything to me Kiga, I just like to tease him like this." Said Michiyo.  
"And I always end up suffering for it." Said Hao, still grabbing his vital region in pain.  
"YEAH THATS WHAT YOU GET B-...wait, what..?" "You heard me, he didn't do anything. But that didn't mean I didn't..." said Michiyo with a sneaky smirk.  
And with that Hao got an uppercut to the chin before I started shaking him around.  
"HAO THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY THING TO DO ON THE WEEKEND!  
"I KNOW THAT! MICHIYO'S JUST MESSING WITH YOU AGAIN! And wait, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT MICHIYO? WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Said Hao while his cheeks lit up like a Christmas tree. I reach for Hao ready to punch him some more while he tried to hold me off, suddenly Michiyo tripped us both knocking the both of us over and at that exact moment Hao's mother walked in.  
"Honey I heard a bunch of noise in h-"  
She looked down at the awkward scene. Hao fell on top of me and was still holding onto my arms. We were also blushing and breathing heavy from the struggle we had earlier. Michiyo was hugging Hao's waist and was still wearing nothing but Hao's jacket and her underwear. She was also blushing. Without Hesitation Hao's mother yelled at us all and was so angry that the door was now barely hanging off it's hinges. After a lot of explanation, and a bit of lying, the situation was now cleared up. "So she's a transfer student from America, who has nowhere to go so you decided to let her stay in your room. Just one other question, where are her clothes?"  
"Um...well... I ate them." Said Kiga "What she means to say is it's a cultural thing. In America, its normal for women to wear a man's jacket and for them to sleep in the same room regardless of gender. It symbolises trust between friends."  
Hao's mother bought the lie and said that Michiyo could stay there for as long as she wants.  
"Awesome, so Hao, does this mean we're... DATING?!" Said Michiyo with a smirk.  
Hao turned around and wrenched Michiyo off of his waist.  
"NO MICHIYO! IT MEANS YOU'RE CRAZY!" replied a clearly annoyed Hao.  
Hao and I left the room and waited for Michiyo to get dressed. She then waved us back in after she was finished and she decided to explain why she really was here.  
" I was sent here by Igor to protect you guys. Igor doesn't want a repeat of what happened in Inaba because unlike Inaba, nobody here has the Wild Card." Said Michiyo.  
"wawawawawawait, WHAT? What do you mean Wild Card? And like Inaba? And AGAIN?!" I shouted.  
"WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOU-"  
"KIGA! Be quiet, my mom will come back up here and kill us if we don't keep our voices down."  
"Alright fine then, So Michiyo, what's going on exactly?"  
"The world is being thrown out of balance once again. Igor noticed that and decided that since none of you know how to use your true self yet, I should come to Okayama and make sure nobody else dies; however, I failed already."  
"What do you mean? I haven't heard about any other murders."  
"Turn on the TV" Said Michiyo.  
We now go live at the scene of the Murder of Mr. Kyosuke Ino.  
Hao and I both stared at the TV in complete shock. This was tragic, my eyes widened in fright and I was beginning to tear up. Hao had started to breathe heavily. I noticed Mr. Ino was hanging on the telephone pole just like the transfer students brother. His face was exactly the same as it was on the midnight channel; however, it was lifeless like a corpse.  
"How could this have happened?!" 


	6. The Battle Begins

"How could this have happened?" I said as I held my head, still staring into the tv screen.

"The TV happened. Someone threw Mr. Ino into the TV." Said Michiyo, acting way too calm for the situation at hand.

"How does that work? How was he thrown into the TV, I mean? Isn't the TV solid?" Said Hao, clearly perplexed.

"Well, it works like this." Said Michiyo.

And with that, Michiyo stuck her hand into the TV. She stared at Hao and I like WE were the crazy ones and then she pulled her hand out of the TV like it was nothing.

"Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhat?!" Said Hao and I in perfect unison. We looked at each other in disbelief

"You have to show us that again!" Said Hao.

"Yeah, how do you do that? There's gotta be some kind of technique or something.." I said.

"It's not really a technique, just shake my hand." Said Michiyo.

"Ok" I said.

I then grabbed Michiyo's outstretched hand and felt a sick feeling spreading through my body. I felt like I was going to throw up, then back at Michiyo.

"How...w-wha...wha..."I began to question before letting out a deep sigh, my head was beginning to spin from the amount of confusion I was feeling. I then fell back, Falling **right into Hao's TV?!** I saw black and white rings zooming by me as I fell further and further into the void. I saw Hao and Michiyo falling from above be as well. I then looked down into the void again and I blacked out. I hit the ground with a thud followed by Hao and Michiyo.

"Ow my ass...ugh...where are we?" I said as I rubbed my bottom, looking around in confusion.

"We're in the TV Kiga, this is another world entirely. Mr. Ino was brought here before he died." Said Michiyo

"So this is the place...its so...foggy" I wiped my eyes trying to see if it was just my vision, but blinked my eyes to only be faced with more fog.

"Where the hell are we?" I said, confused and a bit scared.

"My TV, I think?" Said Hao

" Well you're right Hao, Welcome to the Shadow World AKA Mayonaka TV" Said Michiyo.

"How do we get out of here exactly?"

"Well, there used to be a Shadow that could summon an exit but since Inaba was saved, he hasn't been around."

"Then how are WE gonna get out?!"

"Well, like this..."

Michiyo then put out her hand and from where her hand was facing, TV's fell out of the sky and landed about an inch from Hao in a stack.

"WHAT THE?!"Said Hao

"Calm down, It's not like it was gonna crush you."

Soon a muted screech could be heard from deep within the fog, as I could feel things beginning to head towards us.

"W-what's that..?" I asked Michiyo, grabbing hold of Hao's hand.

"Hey why are you grabbing me?!" said Hao

"In case I need a meat shield!"I replied, beginning to get more frightened by the noises coming closer.

"Wow Kiga, good to know you have my back." said Hao sarcastically.

With that the three of us looked toward the direction of the noise and waited. We started to see a silhouette of a sphere with a tongue floating toward the three of us.

"Here! Take these!" Said Michiyo as she tossed Hao and I two pairs of glasses.A purple pair for me, and black for Hao.

"Put the glasses on, they'll allow you to see through the fog!"

We both rushed to put the glasses on and when we did, we could see the entire area clearly. We were indoors, inside what appeared to be a TV store. The whole area was very dark, yet everything was still visible. The whole area felt so familiar, as if I'd been here before. I looked at Hao and he looked back at me. We were both equally dumbfounded by the glasses but we were amazed at how they worked so well. We were snapped out of our trance when we heard Michiyo yell out.

"PERSONA!"

Michiyo then pushed back her sleeve to reveal a sewn-up bunny rabbit head tattooed on her arm. It glowed a bright blue color and suddenly from behind her, a little girl with a blue dress walked to her side.

"Alice!" Michiyo yelled.

The little girl responded with a smirk and walked up to the shadow slowly. She then looked up and said to it,

"Could you, die for me?"

Then a giant purple spike shot out from out of the ground, impaling the monster and causing it to scream out in pain.

"Get out of here! Run through the TV's stacked in the back, They'll take you back to your world!"

"What about you Michiyo?" said Hao.

Michiyo looked back at us and said,

"Alice and I can handle things from here, now go!"

Suddenly a giant rabbit grabbed us and took us to the back. I looked back to see Alice's eyes glowing, showing that she was the one controlling the rabbit. It then threw us both into the TV.

"Uwah! W-wait!"I yelled out to Michiyo, holding out my hand. Soon we were enveloped in black and white rings once more till we reached a bright light.

We both fell out of the TV in Hao's living room with a loud thump.

"Ugh, that hurt worse than the fall in!" I said

"Well, you didn't have someone fall on top of you a few seconds later" Hao retorted.

We both got up off the floor and decided to wait for Michiyo. We both stood in front of the TV and stared.

"We need to find out how that happened."I said.

"Agreed." said Hao

"I'm gonna try and go back..."

"Kiga thats a bad idea."

"Why? I don't see you thinking of something mister 'smarty pants."

"I am actually, its called **waiting** Kiga." Hao retorted.

"Well what about Michiyo? She could be dead over there! We need to help her!" I countered.

"What **could** we do Kiga? She had that thing that was slaughtering those monsters, and what do we have? Bare-fists? I don't think we can beat up something like that." Hao finished with a sigh.

I was beat and he knew it; I could never think of something that could kill a monster like that. For now all I could do was be patient and wait with him, hoping that Michiyo would be alright.

30 minutes passed and the picture on the TV turned into static. I clutched tightly onto a pillow beside me and leaned back, shaking slightly. A hand suddenly reaches out of the TV and I grab onto Hao once more, prepared to use him as a meat shield. Another hand pops out of the TV, gripping onto the floor till it pulls out...Michiyo! "Oh thank god..." I let out a sigh of relief and let go of him.

"Well it's good to see that you missed me.." Michiyo said, standing up and brushing off some dirt from her clothes.


End file.
